SIPPL Mixology

0:00Welcome to the Emerging Brands Podcast. sharing the stories behind brands you'll want to shop next. I'm your host, Kelly Bennett. I am a New York City-based brand strategist for CPG food and beverage brands. In each episode, I'll take you behind the scenes of founders that are building better-for-you products and bringing them to market. Also, I talk to brand builders, retailers, industry experts, and tastemakers who help bring those cool products to your shopping cart. You will hear stories of real life founders, their launch strategies, and practical advice you could use to grow your own brand or simply discover what's next on shelf.

0:42And the best part is you could shop all the brands featured on the show. This podcast is brought to you by Glimpse. Glimpse is an AI-powered deduction management tool that disputes and recovers invalid deductions, winning brands thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours back to founders so that they can focus on what really matters most. If you're a brand selling in retail, go to tryglimpse.com backslash trial for 30 days free and let them know I sent you. Now let's dive into the new episode. Hi everyone. Welcome back to a new episode of Emerging Brands Podcast with Kelly Bennett. Today I have a pre-launch founder, someone who reached out because I put on social that I was looking for a really cool emerging brand to feature this week.

1:37And Parker Papaccio reached out. She is the founder of Sipple Mixology and she is pre-launch and I'm so excited to share Parker's insights and just lessons learned already before hitting the market next month. So Parker, I'm so happy you're here. Thank you for having me. You're so welcome. So the space that you're in, in the Better For You cocktail mix, It's something that I have been watching. And I think it's a really interesting space that we all know of the traditional go-to mixes. But the ones that are using cleaner ingredients and ones that we would feel good about consuming, that is still a relatively new space.

2:26So I would love to hear from you what inspired the idea and what white space did you see in the market that you're like, okay, I definitely want to create something to solve this issue. Yeah. So SIPL is based off of health and wellness, obviously, but something that's contradictory is that we're including alcohol and we're encouraging alcohol to be mixed with it. Right. You know, the world right now is kind of getting a little more sober curious, but I do think that there is a big market of people who still love to drink a decent cocktail while at the same time, you know, enjoying health, wellness, going to the gym, caring about what they put in their body.

3:08So I saw a space kind of in between, you know, what we like to say is balance in the sip. Like it's okay to have a cocktail or two. So what the basis behind SIPL really was, was I actually went to integrative nutrition school to be a nutrition coach. Really? Yeah. Okay, this is perfect. I love this. So I was, I mean, I sat through those classes. I learned all the things I really, really, really, I changed my body a lot over the past five to 10 years, really focusing on what I've been putting into it, really wanting, you know, longevity hacks and all, all of the things. So through studying that, I also would find myself on the weekends having a cocktail with my friends and thinking to myself, well, this doesn't really kind of match with everything I'm learning, but is there a way to kind of fill that hole in the market with the people that like both, you know?

4:03Right. And so that was what SIP was built off of balanced healthy living, balance in the SIP. We really, what it stands for is simple supplemental sipping. So each sip that you has, has a supplemental benefit of something that I've learned in our integrative nutrition school. So yeah, that was pretty much where we saw the hole in the market. and we really took off from there and we started, you know, doing product development, started curating the perfect margarita that kind of had both. And yeah. Cool. Okay. So there's so much to dive into. And I also love the tie in with IIN. My partner just exited as the CEO of IIN.

4:42Oh, no way. Yeah. So I'm very familiar. And I love talking to founders who've implemented their education to create a CPG product. I have a client right now coming out with a product. She's currently taking IIN classes. So I didn't even realize that. I love that. It's a little contradictory, but I think that's what I love about Sipple and our brand is, you know, something that we did learn, you know, people in the blue zones and people that live the healthiest, strongest lives. One of the biggest factors is community connection and balance. And so that is really what we stand on. You know, They teach us about multidimensional health and really doing what makes you feel good and not sticking to such confined bounds.

5:27There's all these different diets that you can follow these days. There's all this pressure to be doing the right thing. I mean, there's something wrong with everything nowadays. So really to take a step back and say, hey, let's be conscientious about what we're drinking and putting it in our bodies, but let's also enjoy the time and build community with everyone. Yeah. No, it's how I approach things as a consumer myself. So I'm totally on board. What was your life prior to IAN, now becoming a CPG founder? Like what were you doing? What was your background? I'm a big marketing girl. So I worked for a couple of different agencies.

6:04One specifically was Power Digital. I did social web design for other companies. I'm pretty much any digital marketing my hands were in. Um, I did digital marketing for other consumer brands, specifically beverage as well, um, and alcoholic brands. So I have kind of watched these brands be built. I've done like CBD companies, all of that. Um, but I really wanted to do my own thing. You know, it's kind of fun being creative for other companies, but then it almost confines you into like your creativity of where you can go and you're under other people's diagnosis. And so I wanted to say, you know, I want, I want my own ideas out there.

6:44I want to do my own thing. So that's kind of where SIPL started with the mixture of IIN, the focus of health and wellness, the passion for marketing, and just really creating both. I love it. And when did you start taking steps to create SIPL? SIPL was concepted, I want to say almost two years ago. The business was founded in 2024. I believe it was July, but we didn't get product until about a month ago. We hit a lot of road blocks, which I'm sure we can go into later. I have a lot of advice for those starting CPG founders. Don't ever trust a timeline that you have in your head. It's always going to be a lot longer.

7:23But yeah, so about two years ago. So let's talk about the roadblocks because that's honestly such a big part of why I have the podcast and why I also really like having founders on who are just getting up to the starting line because you've already lived probably 100 lives by now in the sense that two years in an entrepreneurship, it's like 10 years of normal life of just every single day things happening. And so I would love to hear what were some of those roadblocks that you realized within the last two years? Yeah, I mean, a big one of it, the biggest roadblock I would say was finding the perfect manufacturer and co-packer, right?

8:07Right. Finding someone that is reliable, but who is also willing to help such a small mom and pop company is really, really difficult to do. You know, these people, the most reliable intact ones are usually only committing to hundreds of thousands of, you know, products per round or production round. And as someone small who's bootstrapping the business, I needed to find someone one that was reliable, but two, that was willing to do my small little half day production, you know, because I'm only producing about 6 ,000 bottles for my first round, which to some people may seem like a lot. But if you're in the CPG space, you realize that it's nothing.

8:46Yes. Yeah. So that was one of our biggest hurdles. And essentially what happened, I won't dive too far into it because I can go down a rabbit hole, but we had signed with this co-packer and we delivered all of our ingredients over there and we scheduled a delivery date. So I was doing some pre-launch sales, um I like gathered everyone's email addresses I was really ready for launch I was marketing it too I was on you know TikTok social media really advertising the launch we had that production date locked in and then all of a sudden the production date got moved back it got moved back it got moved back and we were like what's going on something's weird they kind of stopped responding to us um we found out that my co-packer went bankrupt.

9:32No. All of my ingredients were sitting in their facility. Everything, bottles, labels, caps. Thank God we didn't shoot the juice yet because juice goes bad if it's not packaged right away. So that was the one thing that we didn't ship. But B vitamins, which is in our mix, green tea extract, which is in our mix, our agave, just pretty much everything. And as someone, like I said, who's bootstrapping it, That's all my money sitting in a warehouse in a facility. So yeah, that's wild. So what happened next? So it was stuck there for like three to four months. And I want to maybe even longer, but it was stuck there because they eventually started communicating with us and they told us that they had someone purchasing the location and that they'd be up and running soon.

10:25So we were like, great. There's a wealth management firm that's acquiring this space. They're going to be up and running. So we'll just kind of wait until they're up and running. Well, that turned into in a week, in a month, in another month, in another month. And eventually I was looking into these people and I was like, I don't think I can trust these people. They have gone bankrupt before. It was just really a disaster. So what ended up happening was I had to hire a freight company to pick up all my ingredients. I had to find a new co-packer, pay for everything to get transferred into that new co-packer and basically start all over again.

11:01Wow, that's wild. Yeah. That is absolutely wild. Yeah. What helped you keep going? Because I think that's also something that first-time CPG founders run into of like, whoa, this is like a whole other world that I'm getting into. Two, what helped you just like stay in it and be like, okay, this is a crazy story and this will make for a really good podcast story one day when we're getting ready to launch. But what helped you just like mentally work through that? You know, I kept my full-time job, which was huge. Yep. Because I was spiraling, you know, just saying, hey, there's nothing I can physically do right now.

11:44That was the most frustrating part was I'm doing everything I can do, but everything and all my product is in someone else's hands. So unless I go march there and knock on their door, which isn't going to do anything because I don't have a huge truck to load all this stuff in right now. There was really not a lot I could do. So just being, and this is one of the things that I have to work on, you know, just as a founder in general, releasing some of my autonomy and releasing some my control and just saying, you know, we are going to do everything we possibly can to figure this out. But at the end of the day, I only have so much control.

12:20Um, and that was really, really difficult. It's a learning lesson and saying, okay, while I'm going through this, what are the steps I can take to make sure that this doesn't happen again? Um, contract more contracts, you know, be very, very, very diligent with your contracts. I was diligent, but you just never know. So like adding anything else you think should be in there for protection. Right. Because you would never have thought, oh, there's a possibility that this co-packer could go bankrupt and my stuff could get stuck. Like it's just like wild scenarios that you wouldn't even be thinking of.

12:55So you really earned your stripes as a CBT founder really early on. Totally. And I think – I mean I don't have a huge following right now, but it's been growing. And I really was behind the scenes on TikTok, especially kind of sharing the process of everything. So I felt like I owed it to friends and family who were following along. And I've already put it out there on the ether to just keep going, you know, because you're talking through the process. And I think that, you know, you build a relationship with the people following you and following along when you hit those roadblocks. there was a learning lesson in, okay, should I have started sharing all the ins and outs of my business prior to launch when, you know, I got everyone all excited and then it never happened for, or we aren't launching for an extra year later, or am I happy that I shared everything because it builds that trust and that connection and it shows people really the nitty gritty behind the, behind the business.

13:55I don't know. Um, but that also helped me keep going because I was, you know, sharing it with people. Right. And there's that accountability too of like, okay, I already started talking about this. So let me keep going and figuring it out. And I agree. It's always a fine line for myself when I work with clients pre-launch. It's always like once you have your brand strategy, start sharing because then you could speak directly to what is your product? Who is it for? How will they consume it? Why? And all that good stuff. But I am definitely an advocate for the pre-launch buildup because it's a great way to test.

14:29It's a great way to build community. I mean, you have a great story. And so I think also to being able to, once you do officially launch, like showing that full circle moment, like that will be pretty amazing. Yeah, for sure. And I think it gets, I mean, friends and family and those people following, you know, they start asking, okay, what's the next update? Where is it now? Where are all your ingredients? You know, everyone kind of, it's, it's like watching a live TV show. It's reality TV for sure. It's reality TV at my own expense, but Hey, it works. I mean, yeah, it's going to be a really good story.

15:04I mean, it already is, but it really will. So walk us through now you're a month out of officially launching. What were some things like the green flags that you saw from your new co-packer that you're like, okay, I feel good about taking this next step. The biggest one was communication. Um, yeah, just, I mean, meeting with them right off the bat, getting to know the people, because you're going to be working with these people and you want to be able to trust them. they're located actually in Waco and I went to school in Dallas at SMU. And so being able to travel there and they were very okay with me coming into the facility, checking it out.

15:42So I got to be there present for production, which is really important to me because I want to be able to see their facility, right? I want to see where everything's being made. I want to make sure that everything is being handled correctly. So having them be so accepting of that was great. And then also they kind of knew some of the trauma I went through prior. And so I just said, hey, bear with me, but I'm going to go through our contract and I might be adding some things just because I've been traumatized in the past, not because I have anything, you know, against you guys, but just to protect myself.

16:10And their response to that was very willing and accepting, which was a green flag for sure. That's a great green flag. I love that. So what's been really the strategy ramping up to your official launch now in March? yeah i mean we are doing a little bit more strategic d2c we're not selling through any suppliers right now um the reason for that is we really want to be like slow thoughtful community first i really want people to try it and give me feedback we did a smaller first production run um directly so you know if people have everyone has different taste buds i gotta know what the people like.

16:50So we are selling direct to consumer. Like I said, we are open to small accounts in local Southern California area. I'm in San Diego. So, you know, smaller mom and pop shops where I can go resupply them. We are definitely open to, but in terms of our direct going to market strategy, we're also doing organic influencer gifting. I, as someone who has been in the marketing and digital marketing realm for so long, can smell a paid advertisement from miles away. And I can kind of smell when you are paying$7 ,000 for an influencer to post one story. So we're really looking at like organic growth. And this, this might not even be real influencers, you know, friends who just really want to try it and post about it and share it with their family is honestly more valuable for us than us spending thousands of dollars on one Instagram post that doesn't really show authenticity.

17:39I think the internet is just so saturated right now with advertisements. And so as much as we can possibly get that really, really, really organic discussion focused around simple, I think that's what we're gearing towards. Um, so we're doing that type of gifting. We have a really big Coachella PR launch that's going to be happening, which I'm so excited about. Um, I know I didn't really talk too much about the product, but our margarita mix is skinny, all natural ingredients. It has B vitamins and green tea extract. So a little caffeine. so it gives you a little light boost. And so for Coachella, it's perfect because it lasts you a whole day at the festival, right?

18:20You're getting some energy. We are partnering with one of my dream brands for that, which I'm very excited about, a dream tequila brand. So we'll be doing some gifting for that, kind of getting the word out. And then in terms of launch party, we're really, really dialing it back, like friends, family, and local friends in San Diego that are wanting to post about it. Someone who's bootstrapping it, like I said, I just don't see the value and throw all this money into one big launch night. I really, really want this to grow slow and organic, not viral. Which is a good way of looking at it too. I think there's so much pressure on emerging brand founders that it has to be, everything that they do has to be this viral moment.

19:01But there's very much an argument, and I very much support this too, of the slow, steady, organic, community, strategic, and momentum building, and you're taking action, but you're not forcing anything, and really honing in on a great product, and really getting that organic feedback. It's a nice way to approach it, and I think I love capturing these stories, and I didn't even know that was your strategy, so I'm really happy to hear that, because I think we need to have those reminders in this day and age for sure. Yeah. And small, small pop-ups, like we're going to be popping up all over San Diego, building those relationships with clients.

19:47I want, I want genuine connection, community-based building on this. I really, really don't want, you know, millions of people to all of a sudden see my product on one post, which would be great, which would be great, but then I can't supply a hundred percent authenticity, a hundred percent streamlined brand presentation to them. I want to practice, practice getting it to my consumer, practice how it's looking when it's being shipped to that consumer, really, really dial it in perfectly before I get to the masses. Yeah. I mean, of course the masses are great. I want everyone to know about my product.

20:26I'm just saying, you know, I don't have the backfill right now to supply millions and millions of people. I want to get there, but I want to get there in the right way. Yeah, I think that's a great way of looking at it. Truly. I genuinely think so. Is there any one piece of advice that you've learned? Obviously, the contracts, asking a lot of questions, looking for green flags, but any other piece of advice of maybe a founder who has to pivot or push back their launch date or wants to start building in public but not quite sure exactly how to go about it, wants to incorporate community, but what does that really look like?

21:06Any of those things that you've found really helpful and any advice you would pass on? Yeah, I would say, I mean, kind of going back towards that virality thing, avoid clickbait, you know, build that relationship. If people are commenting and asking you questions, whether it's online or on social, respond to them. It means more building one strong relationship than just getting in the eyes of thousands, like I was saying. So that would be more my advice in terms of community building. But in terms of lessons throughout the production and the manufacturing process, as well as just the product development phase, just know that it is very important to thoroughly vet your partners and protect yourself contractually, as I had mentioned, but also stay calm, like solutions focused.

21:56Things are bound to go wrong. It wouldn't be a startup if things weren't going wrong. So take those as lessons. ChatGPT is your best friend, but also fact check him. Yes, yes, yes. Because it can be wrong sometimes. Yes. And at the end of the day, setbacks don't mean failures. They're just often that thing that sharpens your business the most because they help you dial it in, especially early. Mistakes early are the best because you can learn from them. Mistakes later on are harder. I co-sign on that, Parker. I love it. That's a great, great piece of advice. Last question. Where could people sign up for updates on your launch?

22:35Yeah. So you guys can follow me on my Instagram or TikTok, both are simple mixology. Um, or you can go to my website and sign up, put your email address in there. Uh, simple mixology.com. We will be giving away hats to the first 400 customers that purchase simple when we launch on March 5th. So, um, put your email in, get ready, buckle up. There's a countdown on our website. Um, but yeah, we just like, can't wait to launch. I can't wait for everyone to get to try it. I can't wait for everyone to post pictures with it. Um, it's just gonna be really excited. So I hope you guys all, you know, get to be a part of that.

23:10Amazing. Well, congratulations. I am also excited to send this to my partner who, um, is very close to IIN and I think she'll love this story. And I just really enjoyed your approach and also how you're connecting wellness within beverage and cocktail, but putting it, putting your own spin on it. So just congratulations. And what a great story that you've had over two years. And I can't wait to see where you go next. Thank you. Thanks for having me. You're so welcome. Thank you everyone for listening and I'll see you on the next episode. This episode was brought to you by Glimpse. As we know, building a brand is not as sexy and glamorous as it looks on social media at times.

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26:08And as always, thank you so much for listening, shopping the brands featured on the show and following brands I'm working with. It means so much. See you on the next episode.